EVALUATION OF STUDENT`S PERCEPTION AND BEHAVIOR

Acta Bioethica 2013; 19 (1): 125-130
EVALUATION OF STUDENT’S PERCEPTION AND BEHAVIOR
TOWARDS PLAGIARISM IN PAKISTANI UNIVERSITIES
Ghulam Murtaza, Seema Zafar, Iqra Bashir, Izhar Hussain1
Abstract: Background: The prevalence of academic delinquency in universities, predominantly in the form of plagiarism and cheating,
is extensively conceded. Objectives: The objective of this study was to evaluate student’s perception and behavior towards plagiarism in
Pakistani universities. Methods: This cross-sectional survey was conducted in 6 academic disciplines in 35 universities in Pakistan during
21.02.2011-21.04.2011. Expert interviewers and learned educationists carried out the interviews with the help of a structured questionnaire
to evaluate student’s knowledge about plagiarism such as (i) student’s knowledge about HEC policy, (ii) student’s attitude towards plagiarism, (iii) student’s satisfaction towards plagiarism and cheating, and (iv) their views for penalties (What should be the penalties for 1st and
2nd occurrence of plagiarism?) and recorded the responses. Results: This survey was accomplished by 25742 students. The response rate for
awareness about HEC policy about plagiarism showed that significantly (p<0.05) low percentage (94%) of students was unaware of this policy. The attitudes of significantly (p<0.05) high percentage of students towards plagiarism behavior were unacceptable. Significantly (p<0.05)
high response rate towards attitudes regarding punishment for plagiarism was warning and report to HOD for first and second occurrence
of this cheating, respectively. Conclusions: An extensive lack was found in the understanding of students towards plagiarism across all the
universities. It is necessary to achieve balance between factors affecting plagiarism such avoidance, finding and sentence in case of detection.
Key words: pharmacy practice, academic honesty, plagiarism, cheating
Evaluación de la percepción y el comportamiento de estudiantes hacia el plagio en las universidades paquistaníes
Resumen: Antecedentes: La prevalencia de conductas éticas reprobables en las universidades, principalmente en la forma de plagio y engaño,
es extensamente reconocida. Objetivos: Evaluar la percepción y comportamiento de los estudiantes hacia el plagio en las universidades paquistaníes. Métodos: Estudio transversal, que se llevó a cabo en seis disciplinas académicas en 35 universidades en Pakistán entre 21-02-2011
y 21-04-2011. Entrevistadores expertos y educadores eruditos llevaron a cabo las entrevistas con la ayuda de un cuestionario estructurado,
para evaluar los conocimientos de los estudiantes sobre el plagio: en aspectos como (i) el conocimiento de los estudiantes acerca de la política
HEC, (ii) la actitud del estudiante hacia el plagio, (iii) la satisfacción del estudiante hacia el plagio y el engaño, y (iv) sus puntos de vista en
materia de sanciones (¿qué sanciones deberían aplicarse para la primera y segunda ocurrencia de plagio?). Se grabaron las respuestas. Resultados: La encuesta fue contestada por 25.742 estudiantes. La tasa de respuesta para la conciencia acerca de las políticas HEC sobre el plagio
mostraron significativamente (p<0,05) bajo porcentaje (94%). Los estudiantes no estaban al tanto de esta política. La actitud de rechazo al
comportamiento de plagio muestra significativamente (p<0,05) un alto porcentaje. Los estudiantes consideraron que el plagio eran una conducta inaceptable. Significativamente (p<0,05) de alto índice fue la respuesta respecto de qué castigo se debería dar por plagio, la respuesta
fue: advertencia e informar a HOD para la primera y segunda aparición de este engaño, respectivamente. Conclusiones: Se encontró una
extensa falta de comprensión de los estudiantes hacia el plagio en todas las universidades. Es necesario, para alcanzar el equilibrio entre los
factores que influencian el plagio, lograr detectar la evasión, buscando y sentenciando los casos encontrados.
Palabras clave: práctica farmacéutica, honestidad académica, plagio, engaño
Avaliação da percepção e do comportamento de estudantes para o plágio nas universidades paquistanesas
Resumo: Antecedentes: A prevalência de condutas éticas reprováveis nas universidades, principalmente sob a forma de plágio e mentira, é
extensamente reconhecida. Objetivos: Avaliar a percepção e o comportamento dos estudantes para o plágio nas universidades paquistanesas.
Métodos: Este estudo transversal foi levado a cabo em seis disciplinas acadêmicas em 35 universidades no Paquistão de 21-02-2011 até
21-04-2011. Entrevistadores especialistas e educadores eruditos realizaram as entrevistas com a ajuda de um questionário estruturado, para
avaliar os conhecimentos dos estudantes sobre o plágio: em aspectos como (i) o conhecimento dos estudantes acerca da política HEC, (ii) a
atitude do estudante com relação ao plágio, (iii) a satisfação do estudante para com o plágio e a mentira, e (iv) seus pontos de vista em matéria de sanções (que sanções deveriam ser aplicadas para a primeira e segunda ocorrência de plágio?). Foram gravadas as respostas. Resultados:
Esta enquete foi respondida por 25.742 estudantes. A taxa de resposta para a consciência acerca das políticas HEC sobre o plágio mostraram
significativa (p<0,05) baixa porcentagem (94%). Os estudantes não estavam a par desta política. A atitude de recusa ao comportamento do
plágio mostra significativamente (p<0,05) uma alta porcentagem. Os estudantes consideraram que o plágio era uma conduta inaceitável.
Significativamente (p<0,05) de alto índice foi a resposta a respeito do castigo que deveria ser dado ao plágio; a resposta foi: advertência e
informar a HOD para o primeiro e segundo aparecimento deste engano, respectivamente. Conclusões: Foi encontrada uma extensa falta
de compreensão dos estudantes em relação ao plágio em todas as universidades. É necessário, para alcançar o equilibrio entre os fatores que
influenciam o plágio lograr detectar a evasão, buscando e sentenciando os casos encontrados.
Palavras-chave: prática farmacêutica, honestidade acadêmica, plágio, engano
Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Abbottabad, Pakistan
Correspondence: gmdogar356@gmail.com
1
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Evaluation of student’s perception and behavior towards plagiarism in Pakistani universities - Ghulam Murtaza et al.
Introduction
The practice in which language of an author along
with his thoughts being used by any person and
representing them as an original work of one is
termed as plagiarism(1). Before 18th century, plagiarism was encouraged with a concept that “one
can copy other author’s work as much needed
without any invention but now it is considered as
immoral and unethical(2).
At university, students experience different behaviors and various levels of attitudes towards
plagiarism. Their professional and learning abilities are proportional to their academic honesty.
Academic honesty means “the work that has been
submitted for the assessment of the student to
award him credit to produce this work demonstrates the knowledge of the student and his understanding about this work”(3).
There is confusion in the understanding of the
nature of plagiarism, as students and teachers do
not look at the issue in same way and also the policy makers have their own understandings which
creates gap between all three entities. It is possible
that there is dissimilarity in the response that suites best for academic dishonesty by students(4).
In universities, dishonesty is the main reason of
bad behavior and it is clear from the major studies
carried out in different teaching institutes worldwide(5-13).
Academic delinquency appears to be prevalent in
each and every discipline with little variations due
to the differences in influencing factors such as
type of assessment task(6). The disciplinary areas
in which there is presence of carelessness in academic behavior, the reason is found to be lack of
awareness(13). There are also other reasons such
as work-load which cause academic dishonesty.
In the results of some prototypes, there is indication that male students are more possible to detail cheating than female students. Men typically
have lower levels of discipline making them more
expected to cheat, and women have higher levels
of predictable shame, making them less likely to
give educational dishonesty(14).
126 In Pakistan, no published research has investigated the students’ approaches and actions towards
plagiarism. The aim of this study was to look at
the attitudes of students towards various plagiarism methods, the response towards penalties
and knowledge about anti-plagiarism policies. In
this regards, an easy questionnaire was structured
through which the response of students was observed and results were generated. The questions
about the Higher Education Commission (HEC)
policy for plagiarism were asked in such a way
that the students had a choice to select one choice
from the given options. This study also discussed
the necessary actions to be taken so that the ratio
of academic dishonesty might reduce reasonably.
Methodology
Study design and study location
This study was approved by the Departmental
Review Committee of COMSATS Institute of
Information Technology, Abbottabad, Pakistan.
The administration of each university was contacted for getting permission to conduct the survey
in the respective university. This cross-sectional
survey was conducted in 6 academic disciplines
in 35 government (universities that need economic support from government) and private
(universities that produce their income themselves) universities in Pakistan during 21.02.201121.04.2011. The target population consisted of
students enrolled in different departments such
as pharmacy, engineering, humanities, management, agriculture and computer sciences. The
minimum education prerequisite for inclusion in
this study was 12 years education.
Data collection
The used sampling procedure was stratified random sampling. List of enrolled students, male
and female, was acquired from each department.
Students with non-serious nature were excluded
from the study. A computer generated simple random sample of students was choosed. The selected students were interviewed in their respective
class rooms. Expert interviewers and learned edu-
Acta Bioethica 2013; 19 (1): 125-130
cationists carried out the interviews with the help
of a structured questionnaire to evaluate student’s
knowledge about plagiarism such as (i) student’s
knowledge about HEC policy, (ii) student’s attitude towards plagiarism, (iii) student’s satisfaction
towards plagiarism and cheating, and (iv) their
views for penalties (What should be the penalties for 1st and 2nd occurrence of plagiarism?) and
recorded the responses. Overall, it consumed approximately 25 min (shortest possible time) per
student for complete interview. In case of absence
of a selected student, second attempt was made
to take his/her interview. After the completion of
survey in each department, the booklets containing information about plagiarism were given out
to the students.
The response rate in this study was 92.28% that
supports the fact that such a high number of
students had curiosity of learning more about
plagiarism. The knowledge assessment tool consisting of various questions is reported in Table
1-3. The contents of questionnaire were validated
(15) by expert opinion of an educationist having
extensive experience in education. The questionnaire consisted of following types of questions: (i)
dichotomous questions (Yes/No), (ii) multiplechoice questions (a/b/c), and (iii) short questions
for explanation.
Data analysis
The obtained data was analyzed using SPSS version 13.0.
Results
This survey was accomplished by 25742 students
from 6 departments of 35 different universities.
The awareness of students about HEC policy
about plagiarism was significantly (p<0.05) poor
i.e. 94% students were unaware of this policy
(Figure 1). The attitudes of significantly high
(p<0.05) percentage of students towards plagiarism behavior were unacceptable (Table 1). Significantly (p<0.05) high response rate towards attitudes regarding punishment for plagiarism was
warning and report to HOD for first and second
occurrence of this cheating, respectively.
Figure 1. Response rate for awareness about HEC
policy about plagiarism
Significantly (p<0.05) lesser number (27.6%) of
university students responded that plagiarism is
acceptable (Table 1).
No. Strategy
1
2
3
4
5
6
To discuss
assignment with
your friends and let
him copy.
Not to contribute
in group
assignment
Copying
another student’s
assignment with
and without their
permission
Collecting required
material from
different sources &
combine it to make
an assignment
Asking your friends
to make your
assignment
Submitting
assignment of your
senior student
who made it in
respective semester
Acceptable (%)
Unacceptable (%)
7120 (27.6 %)
17920 (69.6%)
8650 (33.6%)
17200 (66.8%)
11030 (42.8%) 13790 (54.3%)
18040 (70.0%) 780 (3.0%)
8980 (34.8%)
16900 (65.6%)
7120 (27.6%)
18750 (72.8%)
Table 1. Attitudes of students towards plagiarism
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Evaluation of student’s perception and behavior towards plagiarism in Pakistani universities - Ghulam Murtaza et al.
Table 2 shows the frequencies of the students who
responded towards penalties in a case when plagiarism is detected. Most (55.6%) of the university students were in favor of warning and canceling of assignment as a punishment for first time
detection/occurrence. Almost one third of the
students were of the view that resubmission of assignment will be a better option or the assessment
should be undertaken in some other way. In case
of second time detection, most (48%) of the students preferred to report the HOD while fewer
(6%) were of the view to cancel the assignment
with zero marks as they care about their friends
and they were of the view that there will be a valid reason behind cheating. Other frequencies are
shown in the Table 3 in this regards. We gained
these findings from the written comments of students to make their answers reasonable. Students
who were ready to report to HOD, were of the
view that plagiarism gives benefits to those students who do not deserve. The students who were
found not ready to report such act, were of the
view that this does not matter to them and it is
not their responsibility to catch such students,
rather teaching staff should take this into their
account. The overall behaviors about preparing
and submitting an assignment in time is given in
Table 3.
First occurrence
No.
Penalties
1
2
3
4
No action
Warning
Cancel that assignment
Report to HOD
Second occurrence
Report to HOD
1
3
Student should be declared as
fail in that subject
Student should be demoted
4
Student should be expelled
2
First
occurrence
14%
55.6%
16%
6%
48%
6%
18%
7.6%
Table 2. Attitudes of students towards penalties
No. Strategy
1
2
3
4
5
Short deadline
to submit
assignment is
root cause of
plagiarism.
Those who say
that they have
never copied from
anywhere are
lying.
Sometimes it
is necessary to
plagiarize (if you
have another
important task
to do you can
plagiarize)
Plagiarizing is as
bad as to steal
from someone.
If your fellow
student let you
copy, you are
doing nothing
bad.
Agree
Disagree
No opinion
16780
4640
4240
(65%)
(18%)
(16.4%)
16900
4860
4020
(65.6%)
(18.8%)
(15.6%)
16700
5380
3720
(64.8%)
(20.8%)
(14.4%)
13500
7940
4340
(52.4%)
(30.8%)
(16.8%)
15560
6800
3410
(60.4%)
(26.4%)
(13.2%)
Table 3. Behaviors about preparing and submitting an assignment in time
Discussion
In the survey, we found the responses of university students about: (i) knowledge of students, (ii)
their attitudes towards plagiarism, and (iii) response about penalties. The results for almost all
degree programs/departments show that majority
of students were unaware of HEC policy about
plagiarism and few knew about policies and penalties for plagiarism.
The knowledge of students about HEC policies
does not mean that they know about the existence
of a policy, but the knowledge that a policy covers
what aspects about academics. Sensible awareness
is the basic theme of knowledge about a policy. It
is the responsibility of teachers and administration to take such steps that the students not only
know about the existence of HEC policy, they
should have understanding about its contents.
The state of these Pakistani students in regards
of plagiarism is alarming. The principles about
academics which should be acceptable to the stu-
128 Acta Bioethica 2013; 19 (1): 125-130
dents, were rejected by the students and vice versa. Majority of students are always ready to adopt
inappropriate way and so they are at risk of punishment in the form of plagiarism penalty. In case
of plagiarism detection there was an unreasonable
perception of the students. They have a view that
plagiarism is not that much bad and it must not
end with penalties. Though plagiarism is widely
spread, yet the results of this survey are likely to
be a surprise for majority of readers.
From the dawn of internet, plagiarism has become very easy task for the students to download
the desired data for their assignments and copy
it through one click only. Another cause towards
academic dishonesty is the increased size of classes
which results the submission of grouped assignments. This creates lack of contact because many
students in this phenomenon do not perform
their task of assignments and put the burden on
others. This causes negative affect on moral behavior and academic misbehavior. Following actions may be useful to achieve better results: (i)
proper education of students about policy and
unexpected penalties, (ii) scheming to support
the students for their learning to reduce plagiarism, and (iii) procedures to observe and detect
cheating with suitable punishment.
The rate at which the students plagiarize and
cheat is determined in this study which shows
that most infringements occur in coursework situations. On student’s side, they have a view that
it is good to use referencing principle for understanding process and in their written work use of
source material is a successful policy. Here, a clear
gap is found between their knowledge and the use
of facilities to complete their work. The results
raise many questions about the awareness of students for plagiarism, and whether such behavior
has any justification in their degree programs.
Students are likely to cheat because they need to
submit their work in defined time. Another cause
of academic dishonesty is the grade point average
(GPA) of students. Studies(11-13) have shown
that some of the students cheat for high academic
record in order of GPA while some others cheat
because they need to increase their GPA which is
going low.
A study involving self-reported plagiarism and
cheating attitudes in four Australian universities
has been reported in literature that exhibited no
linkage between the prevalence of plagiarism and
dishonesty and the stipulation of information on
academic honesty guidelines to the students(6).
In another study, it has been found that first-year
undergraduate science and engineering cohorts in
Australia were probably bonded with the prevalence of conspiracy and devious activities(3). Academic misconduct in students planning careers in
business, science, engineering and technology in
various academic institutes in USA has also been
reported(9-11). In United Kingdom, the incidence of plagiarism and dishonest behaviors in coursework situations has been observed in pharmacy
undergraduates, with a finding that most infringements occurred(12). In Canada also, high prevalence of pharmacy student’s self-reported use of
dishonest behaviors has been narrated(13).
The factors of teaching methodology have also
an impact on cheating behavior of students.
Teachers must never compromise on justice and
never go personal with any student. They must
focus on learning process of students and improve
their understanding. This really plays a vital role
in developing the honest behavior of student’s for
their academics.
Conclusion
An extensive lack was found in the understanding of students towards plagiarism across all the
universities. It is necessary to achieve balance between factors affecting plagiarism such avoidance,
finding and sentence in case of detection. Moreover, the real causes behind plagiarism need to be
determined through researches and interference
strategies are to be developed so that plagiarism
could be well handled.
129
Evaluation of student’s perception and behavior towards plagiarism in Pakistani universities - Ghulam Murtaza et al.
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Received: August 16, 2011
Accepted: October 2, 2011
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